Taking a step back: 3 years later

Published: 2025-01-01

It's that time of the year where I take a look back at the article from (now) 3 years ago. As always, I am not going to compare my current situation with the article from last year or the year prior, but rather with the original article written back this very same day in 2022.

Before we dive in, I would like to mention that this is a step forward rather than back, as I am officially – and proudly – a furry again! In my mind, this doesn't make this look back any more interesting because a lot of things have changed in my life since then.

Reading back

Before we dive further, I must tell that I have nothing against furries.

I don't feel the need to comment on this as obviously I like furries again now.

I have nothing against you, specifically reading this, but more generally against the vibe going in the fandom.

Obviously there are always vocal minorities, but I feel like the fandom is seriously about self-acceptance and a sense of community: being united in what makes each one of us unique.

When I initially joined, back in February 2021, I thought not-safe-for-work content was uncommon; but I may have been wrong about that. Browsing r/furry (and — in general — other furry-related places) led me to quite a lot of NSFW stuff, more than expected, or almost-NSFW content (an amount of content I didn't find in other communities).

(Full disclosure: I have not been on r/furry since, but this is planned for 2025).

I think I was mistaken at the time. My definition of what is not safe for work and what is has most likely just changed since then to be less extreme, and I do agree that the general line between safe and not safe is more lenient in the fandom than with the general public, but I do not feel like it makes me uncomfortable anymore.

Aside from that, the general "everyone is gay" vibe has been annoying me. It was fun at first but it ended up being really annoying, maybe to the point of being toxic.

I had a Reddit thread about this recently. While I do agree that queer people represent the vast majority of the fandom – myself included, my girlfriend is cute –, there is still a non-negligible part of people who are not queer or who have not had the time to discover that they are yet.

I joined back in 2021 without really knowing my sexuality, went through an asexual phase because eventually landing on lesbian, with maybe a shift to pansexual in 2025.

I also have personal reasons for leaving the fandom, mainly due to mental health during this year.

That is true. At this time, I was in a very distressing situation mentally speaking. A lot of these issues have been resolved – or at least addressed partially – in 2024 and I am more confident about myself and my social abilities. I'm even going to my first ever furry-ish convention in late June!

Looking back at this makes me wonder if I would have dealt with my mental health better if I was still a furry all the way and didn't take a stop by My Little Pony. While I do agree that watching My Little Pony made me felt safe, nowadays this feeling is provided by watching Bluey – who would have thought? –, meaning it was not unique to My Little Pony but rather just a general feeling of watching cartoons.

If I had stayed in the furry fandom during these dark times, I might have been able to deal with my mental health better with the help of the general community, but I also wouldn't have met a lot of awesome people that I love today – they'll know who they are –.

• I may not post any furry-related content anymore (text, images, video, ...);

This is coming back hopefully this year. I mean just look at my profile picture.

• I may stop following furry artists on social media (e.g. Twitter);

Social media has kind of died out for me – except Reddit –, especially since a certain right-wing billionaire bought Twitter, and I don't think I am interested in it any longer. However, I still follow some artists on e621 and maybe I will start taking a look at DeviantArt in 2025.

• I will stop participating in public furry spaces (e.g. r/furry, Discord servers);

As with social media, I am not really interested in online "crowded" places like public Discord servers any more. It feels overwhelming and it is often hard to say something, I feel like it is just a place to make new friends that then you will be able to talk to more privately.

However, I still participate actively in various communities on Reddit, and I do plan to join r/furry again in 2025, hopefully an even more active community than before.

I will still continue communicating with people I consider friends, even if they are furries;

That was unfortunately not all true. While there are still some friends that I have kept contact with, there are also a lot I simply stopped talking to during this time. It was with the realization that I am a furry again that I took the step to go back to them.

Abandoning people is something that is hard to deal with on the internet with the lack of real physical presence: if you don't have anything to say to people, you can't really make things up. I think it is an issue that people have been confronted to a lot, especially with the advent of instant message and – more generally – social media, and I do admit that I have hurt people in the past by my sudden disappearance – mainly related to my mental health issues – and I sincerely apologize to them.

• I may still continue listening to furry music, to a more limited extent

This is also 200% true. I have almost entirely given up on My Little Pony music – except Vylet Pony – by now, I have also started listening to furry music again and I even bought it on Bandcamp to support artists. I am willing to listen to more furry music, even though it is surprisingly hard to find, and maybe discover some more gems.

Not a lot of my projects make reference to furry-related content, so this change doesn't affect many projects.

This is also true. Since the second part of 2024, I have been trying to make my projects more neutral towards both furries and bronies, as they are meant to appeal to both – which, in my mind, is kind of the same community –. This means that all mentions of My Little Pony were eventually removed in favor of more neutral furry mentions, such as the name "Floofi" that was announced in October.

I recently got started to the My Little Pony fandom (especially Friendship is Magic) fandom, and I like it; I really like it.

This, unfortunately, does not hold true anymore. While I do still undeniably appreciate the efforts of the community, I feel like the show itself is at a dead end for me – Hasbro has even completely abandoned it without any real information of what comes next –. This is what has also driven me to abandon My Little Pony progressively, as I felt that there is no point in staying if no new content is going to come.

I guess this means that deep down I was just a furry all along, and I think this is true, at least this is how I think of it: I have been a furry for almost 4 years.

I apologize for the My Little Pony fans who feel disappointed by this.

With all that said, I just hope you are not disappointed by this change, and I hope I move forward to try out new things and be happier!

The last part is still true: I want to be happier and more satisfied of myself, of my identity and the people I spend time with. I do not think this announcement will disappoint anyone – if anyone even cares at all, that is – since it is kind of going back to roots.

What's next?

My plans for 2025 are pretty clear, and I might not reach all of them. Here is a quick sample:

• I have already been exploring furry art on e621 but I am thinking of maybe taking it one step further – and why not finally get a fursona commissioned by an artist.

• This is purely personal but I would like to explore the possibilities with not-safe-for-work furry content further, as this is a research topic I have been interested in a lot lately.

• Related to the point above, I would like to explore my sexuality more. I might or might not be pansexual, but I am sure I love girls either way.

• I have been planning on joining r/furry again, which is a thing that will be done very shortly.

• I am wishing to listen to furry music more. My music library has a whopping 700 tracks (Tidal) and 380 tracks (owned) now, and I would like to grow both of these numbers even bigger – the latter comes at a cost so it will most likely grow less –.

• I would perhaps like to implement more furry-ness into my projects, while still keeping them friendly towards bronies to preserve that dual-inclusiveness.

• On a more personal note, I would like to overcome my mental issues and be a better person for the people I love – yes Maya, that's you –, and take more time to appreciate things and think before taking an important decision.

With that said, I wish you all a happy 2025 full of happiness and friendship!